The Light Surrounding You
by TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: Gurg had always worked hard to be the best orc he could be. He barely ever forgot to brush his warg before going into battle, and he always made sure his blades were sharp. Whenever he thought of dwarves, men, or elves, he felt a deep and bitter hatred. He was prepared to die if his leader asked. He only feared one thing: hobbits.
1. Chapter 1

Gurg had always worked hard to be the best orc he could be. He barely ever forgot to brush his warg before going into battle, and he always made sure his blades were sharp. Whenever he thought of dwarves, men, or elves, he felt a deep and bitter hatred. He was prepared to die if his leader asked. He only feared one thing: hobbits.

When Gurg had been just a little orcling, his mother (may she burn for all eternity) had told him stories of hobbits. She had described them to have the pointed ears of the filthy elves, to be shorter than any wretched dwarf, and to have feet larger than any man, even though they wore no shoes. She had also told him that a single hobbit could, if they wanted to, kill more orcs than any army. And that was if they felt merciful. If they didn't, his mother had told him, they could do even worse things. At that point, Gurg had asked what they could do, but his mother had sworn never to speak of it because it was so terrible.

Gurg had hoped to live his entire life without seeing a hobbit, and so, when Azog had ordered them to hunt down the group of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield, he had hoped that it was just a trick of the light that had made one of the Company seem smaller than the rest. It was bad enough that there was a wizard in the group; if there was a hobbit present Gurg was going to run away. He would rather be captured by elves than face a hobbit.

So, when a small figure leapt from the fallen tree and killed Narz, Gurg had turned his warg around and fled.

"Run for your lives!" he shouted in Black Speech. "They have a hobbit! Run!"

He didn't bother looking back. If those fools wanted to mess with a hobbit, they could feel free to.


	2. Chapter 2

One of the strongest instincts that hobbits had was to never kill a sentient being. Even if it was self-defense, there were severe consequences for murder. No one was quite sure what it was, but not even the most desperate of hobbits would take a life to save themselves.

The only thing that could make a hobbit go against that instinct was if a member of their family was in fatal danger.

Yet Bilbo had killed for Thorin, who thought of him as nothing more than a burden, who thought Bilbo should return home. Well, Bilbo thought as he stood in front of Thorin's prone body, he would likely never go home anyways after this, so what were one of two more kills to add to his body count.

Strangely, a few of the orcs broke away, running not as if they were going to get reinforcements but as if they were fleeing a terrible foe. Azog ignored them though, and more orcs approached him. Bilbo thought for sure that he was about to join his parents in Yavanna's Garden when other members of the Company joined the fray.

Then Bilbo was snatched up and deposited on an Eagle's back. He was too worried about Thorin's state of being to worry about falling or remember that he had killed some being, and that there would likely be hell to pay for it.

-‹◊›-

Bilbo didn't even realize that something was wrong until they were at the bottom of the Carrock. Sure, he had felt a little feverish while they were looking at Erebor, but he had assumed that it was the result of finally being accepted. Now, though, he knew there was something wrong.

There were two Thorins.

Not that that was a bad thing. Bilbo could think of a lot of reasons why having two of Thorin would be a good thing. For one, it would be a lot harder for Azog to kill him if there were two of him.

Maybe one of the Thorins wasn't real. Bilbo reached out and poked one of them just to be sure.

His finger met fur, so that was a point in the there-are-now-two-Thorins column.

Both Thorins turned around to give him an odd look.

Suddenly, Bofur was there, and there were two of him too. In fact, now that Bilbo was looking, he could see two of every member of the Company. Except Gandalf, there were three of him. That was probably because he was a wizard, Bilbo decided.

Gandalf was probably the one behind all of the duplicates. Bilbo couldn't fathom why Gandalf would want to double the entire Company, but he was a wizard. They did magic…. things, and left for mysterious reasons in the middle of adventures.

Bofur's hat was very mysterious, what with its gravity-defying ways. Maybe it was magic too. Bilbo's eyes widened. Maybe it was evil.

Why was he staring at the sky, Bilbo wondered. Weren't they supposed to be walking somewhere?

He could hear Thorin speaking, but he couldn't quite make out the words. That was okay though. Thorin had such a majestic voice that Bilbo was content to just listen to it. Thorin was just majestic in general. If Majesty was a person, Bilbo decided, it would definitely be Thorin.

Bofur would be Happiness. Fíli and Kíli would be Mischief and Trouble. He wasn't sure which was which, but he knew that they were probably getting into some sort of mischief or trouble. Like with the trolls.

Still, the trolls hadn't been as bad as that Gollum creature. At least when he was facing the trolls, he had Thorin and the Company at his back. Gollum had been the one with the advantage, what with his knowledge of the tunnels and his creepy precious.

Bilbo could understand why Gollum had called the ring his precious. After all, it made people invisible. It was obviously very special. He was glad he had put it in his pocket for safekeeping.

And yet, he could feel something evil emanating from that same pocket. If he were to rate the evil on a scale of one to ten, with one being the Sackville-Baggins and ten being a dragon, the evil he could feel was an eleven. He would probably have to burn his waistcoat to get rid of it. Maybe he should do that right now.

So, Bilbo took of his outermost layers. Then, he noticed that it was very hot out, much hotter than it had been earlier. Maybe he should just take off all of his clothes.

Something was holding down his arms though. Bilbo looked up and saw his cousin, Otho Sackville-Baggins.

"Otho!" he said. "I was just thinking about you."

Otho frowned. "Bilbo, why are you trying to go swimming?"

Bilbo sighed. Otho just didn't understand. "It's too hot out to do anything, so I decided to go for a dip."

"But Bilbo, Fortinbras told me you couldn't swim." Otho said.

"Well, Fortinbras is a filthy liar." Bilbo declared.

"I'm not entirely sure I trust your judgment Bilbo." Otho said slowly.

"You married that crazy Lobelia Bracegirdle. If anyone's judgment should be called into question, it's yours." Bilbo said.

Otho raised his hands above his head. "Fine, fine. Go swimming. Drown for all I care."

Bilbo just smiled at his cousin before he dove forward into the pool of water that had appeared to his left. He sank down into the cool peaceful water.

It was only once he hit the bottom that he remembered that he couldn't, in fact, swim, and that he was going to drown. The water, which had once seemed peaceful and inviting, now seemed as if it was a sinister trap dragging him down deeper and deeper until he sank like a stone into blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Gandalf knows all, part one

Thorin had been more than a little surprised when Mr. Baggins had poked him in the shoulder. He had turned around to ask the hobbit what he was doing only for the burglar to give him a dopey smile and mutter something about majesticness. Thorin had been a little confused, but he had thought nothing of it until Mr. Baggins started pulling off his clothes with a wild-eyed look of fright on his face. By then it was obvious that the hobbit wasn't in his right mind, so Thorin graced his arms to restrain him before he managed to pull off his pants. When he returned to normal Mr. Baggins would be mortified enough that he had taken off his shirt, and while it would be almost endearing to see him turn bright red, Thorin would prefer to have a burglar that would still speak with him rather than one that had died of embarrassment.

So, he resolutely ignored the small voice that noted how soft Bilbo's skin was while the hobbit spoke sternly to someone named Otho because he could feel that Mr. Baggins had a much higher temperature than he should. Had his burglar caught some sort of disease in the goblin tunnels? Thorin immediately felt guilty because he had hugged Bilbo and not even noticed that he was ill. He had been so caught up in the sight of Erebor that he had ignored Mr. Baggins' needs right after he had fully accepted him into the Company.

It was only when Bilbo passed out that Thorin was pulled out of his guilt.

"Óin!" he shouted. "Our burglar is ill!"

Thorin could see a mixture of guilt and worry on the faces of every member of the Company. Every member except Gandalf. The wizard had sat down on a stump a little ways apart from the rest of the group, and the expression on his face was one of a person who has seen an inevitable, terrible event about to occur.

"What do you know?" Thorin demanded as he stalked over to where the wizard had sat, suddenly furious. "What do you know about Mr. Baggins' illness?"

Gandalf pulled out his pipe and lit it before speaking "You probably don't know that I was good friends with Bilbo's mother, Belladonna Took."

Thorin raised an expectant brow, but, for once, he chose to remain silent and let the wizard speak.

"We went on many adventures together, Belladonna and I. She had an unquenchable desire to see as much of the world outside of the Shire as she could." Gandalf paused to puff on his pipe. "On one of our adventures, we ran into a pack of goblins. It was a small group, easily defeated, but Belladonna refused to kill even one of them. Now that doesn't mean she didn't know how; she was quite proficient with a weapon." Gandalf paused again, considering. "I believe her weapon of choice was a number of small knives. Anyways, I asked her why she hadn't killed any of the goblins, and she told me that no hobbit would kill a thinking being to save their own life. There were consequences, she told me, but no hobbit had murdered in such a long time that they had no idea what they might be."

Thorin frowned, remembering what he had seen after being gnawed on by the white warg. "And yet Bilbo killed an orc."

Gandalf nodded. "I was told that a hobbit would only be able to overcome that instinct if a family member or someone else close to them was in fatal danger."

Thorin sat down abruptly as he was swamped with crippling guilt. Bilbo's illness was entirely his fault. He just had to recklessly confront Azog and put himself in harm's way.

He stared bleakly at the ground as he asked the wizard "Is there anything we can do?"

"There is nothing we can do but wait." he replied, defeat clearly audible in his voice.

A/N: That was the angstiest thing I have ever written. I blame Thorin. He's such an angsty little muffin.

And don't worry readers, this story won't be sad for long. Next chapter we will return to the usual tone (again, blame Thorin).


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